


A month of (peggysous) bits and pieces

by a_wonderingmind



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: (well an attempt of that), And feels, F/M, Fluff, Jack Thompson (mentioned) - Freeform, No Guarantees - Freeform, References to Addiction, Tags to be added, one a day prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:45:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 4,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19449226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_wonderingmind/pseuds/a_wonderingmind
Summary: A little challenge I set myself, to write every day in June - which I failed to do, but I will continue to share over the month of July. Almost exclusively peggysous, but there's honestly not much more you can expect from me!





	1. golden

The rays bounced onto his still form, carefully balancing the little one on his chest, cheeks red from the flu, himself fast asleep. The light illuminated the golden fur of Leo the lion, tucked under a small arm.

A quiet snuffle emanated from the corner, and Peggy smiled. She thought about getting a camera, but there were some moments whose quiet majesty just couldn't be captured.


	2. hype

“Man this gig is gonna be so hype,”

Peggy looked up from her dishtowel, continuing to dry as Daniel handed her plates.

“I do not permit swindling in my house,” she joked with a smile.

Daniel smirked, but Michael looked at her disapprovingly, and shook his head. 

“You don’t understand, Mum,” he huffed, getting up.

“Okay darling, I’m just pulling your leg. You and Evan have fun at the concert now, and be home by - ”

“Yes mum bye love you-”

“Eleven.”

Daniel came up behind her and kissed her cheek.

“They’ll be fine. They’re good kids,”

“I know, dear,”


	3. risk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> whelp because I am as unreliable as I thought I would be, have yesterday's and today's. Hopefully I can remember tomorrow!

Peggy was used to risk, in her professional life. Her job was the definition of risk; putting herself on the front line so that ordinary life could go on. It had been a very real front line, for a while, and a very straightforward enemy. If you said Sieg Heil and wore the uniform, then you were to be treated as the rules of war dictated. Now, with the enemy no longer uniformed, the risk was greater - gone were the acknowledged rules of engagement, a new set of underhanded ones; but rules nonetheless. It was a calculated risk she took, she thought.

Peggy was not used to risk, however, in her personal life. She wasn’t sure if the risk here was greater or not; the front line ever ebbing and flowing, just outside of definition. The more she tried to build an idea of the rules that governed the shadowy lands of feeling the more uncertain they felt. She had risked it once, but the trouble with dating Steve Rogers was that Captain America was along for the ride too. She hadn’t begrudged him that, but he had had to take his own risks. There was no straightforward enemy either, no-one to take the brunt of the rage when it came. So the walls came up, as she decided against that particular risk.

The walls of calculated thought did have to come down eventually, though. The vial would be a symbol, the first brick to be removed.

“Goodbye, my love.”


	4. comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I thought this would be an appropriate time for this one, since you Americans make such a hullabaloo about the 4th July ;) Enjoy!

“Paaii there keeps being loud noises and I don’t like it,”

“Oh sweetie do you not like the fireworks?” 

She shook her head and sniffled.

You know what, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you go and get all dressed up warm and meet me on the porch?”

She scurried off, still clutching her ted. Daniel collected a blanket and some earplugs from the cupboard. 

Five minutes later and Edie was waiting patiently at the door, and together they went outside (“One big pull on the handle, that’s it,”). Daniel went to sit on the rocking chair and put the blanket over him, motioning for Edie to join him. She hopped up, but then immediately buried her head in his chest as another bang went off. He wrapped his hands around her and playfully batted at her ears as he put the earplugs in. She pulled back at his ears and he laughed.

HE wrapped her in the blankets and pointed to the sky, where a big catherine wheel was spinning, and Edie gasped. Kissing her cheek, he said into her ear 

“They’re very pretty, aren’t they?”

“Very pretty,” came the awed reply.


	5. communicate

One look could say a lot.

A glance away after a well-meaning rebuttal.  
(“I can handle whatever these adolescents throw at me” - “yes ma’am,”)

A questioning look, trailing after the other.  
(He wasn’t sure how it could have been her, at the club that night.)

A pleading look, shot down an alleyway and into the barrel of a gun.  
(“Please Daniel, you don’t understand,”)

And smiling eyes, unsuccessfully suppressing a smile.  
(Not yet, she thought, but one day, perhaps.)


	6. illness

“Go home!”

“Not yet! I’m still needed here!” insisted Peggy, before she gave in to a sneezing fit so large half the bullpen looked over.

“Go home.” he repeated with a finality.

She sniffed. “Okay.”

* * *

When he got home that night he found her sound asleep on the sofa. Which was nice, because she had been tossing and turning for the last three nights. He collected a blanket from the airing cupboard and draped it over her, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek as he did so. 

Quietly grabbing a book, he settled into the armchair across from her with cold meds and water beside him, and waited for her to wake.


	7. flowers

Of all the things she thought would be hard about this inevitability, she didn’t think choosing flowers would be this hard.

Daniel had left a lot of planning in his will; where, how, what music was to be played. He had always had a secret love of music, brought back from the European theatre (in both senses of the word, which Peggy had always found a little ironic.) But he, in typical style, had only looked at the big picture. Edie and Michael had been a great help - they’d organised the coffin, the permit for the gravestone, the service and even got the blank invite cards. Not wanting her to feel helpless, they had given her the task of ordering the flowers.

Faced with an endless row of colours and shapes designated ‘good for wreaths’, she envisaged him, watering the window boxes. He had always liked those light pastel coloured ones; what were they called? Ah… 

“The peonies, please.”


	8. raw

Daniel sighed as he flopped onto the bed. His stump throbbed. Today had been a combination of the extremes of sitting and then chasing; he could tell his leg would be swollen and red. Heaving himself up he doffed the prosthesis and reached into his drawer for the care kit. Placing the box next to him, he could feel his eyes drooping, and he gave in to the temptation to close them, feeling the routine rather than watching. He knew it well enough now anyway…

Just then he felt a pair of hands take the cream from his and start massaging his stump. He pried open one eye to see Peggy intensely focused on the ridges and falls of his skin.

“You don’t have to…” he trailed off into a yawn.

“No, but I want to,” she replied. “Let me do this for you, darling.”


	9. embarrassed

Mr Jarvis had been happily going about his morning routine, preparing the bedrooms for some filming executives of Howard’s acquaintance to come and stay for a day. He had been informed that they were actually there to talk about Howard’s new film, but that was to be seen.

The third spare room had not had the sheets changed since Chief Sousa had stayed the night last, he thought, so he would do well to bring those down to the laundry room and set them running for the morning. Opening the door he saw Chief Sousa’s crutch tucked in the corner, which did strike him as strange, but the full consequences of that circumstance did not hit him until the realisation that there was at least one, probably two naked bodies on top of the sheets he had come to collect, also hit him.

He met the eyes of Chief Sousa, and it was anybody’s bet as to which man’s face went redder. Or which apology was more garbled.


	10. addiction

When you talk about addiction, there are always the obvious ones that first spring to mind - drugs, alcohol, gambling.

Then there are the other -holics; shopaholic, foodoholic, workaholic.

Peggy was not a workaholic. Sure, she used it as an escape from now and then, but she could stop at any time. The fact she was here at 8pm was only because Michael had finally moved to college and now she had a bit more flexibility. Sh had a bit of empty nest syndrome too, if she thought about it too hard. 

Suddenly the door opened. “What are you doing here?” she threw in the general direction of whoever walked in, not looking up to see.

“Could ask you the same thing,” a snarky voice, unmistakably Jack’s, replied. He continued - “Your husband called me to check on you. He’s getting worried.”

A vague memory of a phone call floated back.

“C’mon,” he said, gesturing, “let’s go home.”


	11. part-time

Peggy smiled on the outside, but inside she wanted to punch the simpering Mrs Bennet.

Of all the questions to be asked of her now that she was showing, one of the most annoying was “are you gonna go part-time?”

(The most annoying, as an aside, was “can I feel?”, or just not even asking and just rubbing her belly; why couldn’t the bloody Americans keep their hands to themselves like civilised people!)

Everyone in the neighbourhood knew she was a ‘career gal’, but the question irked because they assumed that Peggy would ‘return’ (as if she’d ever started) to the home and be a nicely behaved wife and mother.

And so, every time she was asked, she would reply, with a matching simpering smile.  
“No, actually, Daniel is the one staying at home.”

The scandalised looks were worth it every time.


	12. vanity

The old vanity had stood many years.

It had first served as a practice desk, set up with typewriter and all, as a space for Peggy to excel at her ‘profession’ of note taking and transcription. That particular course was pushed on her by her mother. It had come in useful at Bletchley, she had to admit. You could still see the divots from the feet of the machine.

It had found its way over to America after she had complained in a letter that she had no private space to sit and write. The truth was, she needed a place to pore over work files, and that couldn’t very well be done at the kitchen table. The files had lived in the drawer underneath the lipsticks, and the cake mascara on the side. From some angles, the sun bleaching was almost hidden.

As the house got bigger, it returned to the intended purpose, and filled with all manner of lipsticks and powders. Running her hands over the edges, she could still feel the notches where Michael’s plane had ‘crashed’ over and over again. The bottom drawer didn’t fully come out anymore either.

It had served well, she thought.


	13. run

The papers strewn all over the office perfectly represented the disorder in Daniel's mind. He looked around, trying to decide whether this particular stack belonged in the to be audited pile, or the old fileable financial details pile, and oh Christ both of those piles were across the room taunting him and he was just drowning in paper.

A knock came from the general direction of the door, and he shouted 'come in!' without even looking up.

The dim desk lamp showed it was Peg, coat on and a sympathetic look on her face.

"Time to come home, darling," she said softly.

"The West Coast Bureau won't run itself," he protested.

She smiled and held out a hand. "But it will wait until tomorrow."


	14. gifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lucky you guys, I was unable to post due to being in a lot of pain (baby-growing abilities are such fun) so now you get like 5 at once!

Rose was perceptive. She could tell if someone was lying with two looks, and beat their ass if necessary.

Samberly was analytical. Didn’t help him in social situations, but give him a puzzle, and he’d have an answer for you.

Jack was wily. Just the right word to keep the wheels greased at just the right time - count on him.

Mr Jarvis was stalwart. There was almost nothing that could phase him, and even less to get him to defer.

Peggy was confident. Baptised in fire, hardened for survival, she shone like an iron straight out the fire,

Daniel, well, he didn’t know exactly what he was. Peg said he was a leader, the one who pulled them all together, and he would take that, because he knew he wasn’t good at introspection.

And the gifts of the team, made the team.


	15. cartoon

Michael was leaning into the small box, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, enraptured.

On screen, Jerry was taking a rather musical approach to dismembering Tom’s fingers, sawing musicians out of their seat in time to the music and generally being mischievous. Michael was howling in laughter. 

Daniel was sitting in the armchair behind him, perusing the newspaper, looking up occasionally. He didn’t really get it, but Michael was still squealing in laughter, so it couldn’t be too bad, he supposed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you want to watch the part of the episode I am referencing here, it was an actual cartoon issued in 1950, and can be found here :)
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpAjbaNBPqA


	16. honour

“I am honouring a promise, Chief Sousa. It is no trouble at all.”

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m so sorry it has to be so fiddly,”

“It is really no trouble - when you made Ana and I Michael’s godfather, this is what we signed up for.”

He smiled, adding, “Plus I do think Ana will enjoy the challenge of fashioning a completely new arm for Big Bear.”


	17. push

There was that antsy feeling in the air again, always right before a big offensive. Daniel could feel it. There had been troops shipping in and out for weeks, even rumours of the 102nd, and they seemed to be trying to empty the field hospitals. The atmosphere in the bar was different too - more drinking, more joking. Everything seemed to move paradoxically; slower, focusing on last preparations, and simultaneously faster, anxiously speeding towards zero hour, of which they knew nothing. There were Panzer divisions lining up too, so clearly something was happening. His division was shipping out tomorrow, to the next strategic stronghold, a smallish town near Luxembourg. Next stop, Bastogne.


	18. cherish

“Do you Daniel Sousa, take Margaret Elizabeth Carter to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

He had never expected to be here, doing this, even after it was clear he would survive the war.

He looked into her eyes and saw the same fierce promise.

To love and to cherish.

With all his heart.


	19. sparkle

Glitter. Fucking glitter. The prank war had clearly escalated so far that Jack thought it appropriate to send her glitter in the mail. And she had opened just before work. She was going to be shedding it all day. Goddammit.

Edie walked into the kitchen, schoolbag slung over her shoulder.

“Mum, why are you sparkly?”


	20. feminine

Daniel was not a typical ‘manly’ man. He didn’t mind doing the dishes for Peggy, or the laundry, for that matter. Granted, it was a little harder now he couldn’t waltz around the apartment without thought like he used to, dancing to his swing records. He still played the music, and the repetitive motions calmed his buzzing brain.

They shared chores, they cooked together and apparently this was unusual. He had become much better with emotions, too, in no small part thanks to Rose. If he’d been in the NY office, he had a feeling he would have been the butt of all the effeminate jokes. But here it was different. Maybe it was Chief status, but nor did the guys make snide remarks about Rose, or the admin staff either. In his opinion, the world could benefit from being a bit more like this.


	21. nerds

Peggy threw another handful of the brightly coloured sweets in her mouth.

“Look Daniel, aren’t they just the epitome of the 80s!”

“I thought you bought them for Christopher’s party bags?”

“I did, but there was a pack left over. Here, try a couple,”

He eyed the fluorescent pink balls in suspicion, but tentatively put them on his tongue. And promptly screwed up his face in reaction to the sour taste that filled his mouth. It tasted how he would expect fluorescent pink would, with a hint of artificial strawberry.

“I don’t think I’m the target market.” Peggy burst into laughter at his puckered face, and he couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped, either.


	22. purpose

In hospital, purpose was easily graspable - get better, learn to walk again. Life ‘after’, whatever that was, was too far out of reach. But, as it got closer, Daniel couldn't avoid thinking about it. He had never particularly subscribed to the work, buy a house in the suburbs, retire and die view of life, but fading into the grey mass of office workers seemed to be his only viable option now, given his limitations.

When the SSR job came along, he took solace in the thought that at least his desk job would make a difference. Not that he had expected to do as much real police work as he was, but he was definitely glad of it, the opportunity to be proactive about his work not being completely swept from under his feet (or foot, pun intended). Helping others; this seemed a central theme - why he joined up, why he joined the SSR. A driving force.

Hm.


	23. goofy

Daniel had always been more of the earnest type. It had taken a while, right back in the NY office, for him to _get_ the special brand of sarcasm that Peggy saved for her most poisonous remarks. When he had dared to make a joke in the open, it had been so out of the blue that she almost laughed from shock. 

It was in the quiet moments in between scanning papers on night shifts that his wit came out. Endearingly dad, it peeked out from behind an article about an unfortunately named Chris P. Bacon, and would often return when it was just the two of them.

However, Peggy had never observed the way his whole body could join in with the joking, up until now. He was currently rolling around in the grass with Edie, blowing raspberries and threatening with tickle fingers; Edie shrieking in laugher. His grin split his face, and when he turned it towards her she almost melted at the love there. 

Ohp - and he was gone again, throwing himself around as if he didn’t have one knee missing. If someone had told her that this was the man with the gentle smile on her first day at the office, she would have hardly believed it.


	24. recipe

Leaning against the door jamb, Daniel watched a frustrated Peggy’s shoulders tense, and a hand flick through the pages exasperatedly. He came up behind her, crutch clicking on the floor.

Wrapping his hands around her waist, he kissed her on the cheek. And spluttered.   
“Blegh! Flour!”

Peggy sniggered, then picked up a small pile of flour and blew, covering everything in a thin layer of dust.

“Smells lovely,”

“I think it might be curdled.” she proclaimed. She dipped her finger in and tasted it, pulling a befuddled face. He did the same, but instead of putting it in his mouth, he poked her nose.

“Hey!” she yelped.

Licking the last of his finger clean, he said to the bump underneath his hands -

“I bet your mom can make wonderful cakes,”

Peggy made a noise of disagreement, but smiled anyway.


	25. courage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow'; Mary Anne Radmacher_

Peggy fell onto her bed and sighed. Somewhere between ‘not the dame’ and ‘get the lunch orders, Marge’, she just got fed up with the disrespect.

Sousa sat down on his bed and sighed. At some point between the funny looks he got this morning and ‘crip’, he gave up listening to the indignance.

She really loved her job, she did. She made a difference.

He really loved his job, he did. He made a difference.

A small voice echoed across New York; I will try again tomorrow.


	26. finance

“It’d be a pinch, but you’ll still be working at least,”

“Could it work, Daniel? I’m all for it, I just want to know where you see our little family in four years, whether you would like it to be any bigger by then?”

“I don’t see why it couldn’t! The SSR is closing down, you’ve got that little project with Stark, and I could be around if our family got any bigger.”

“Yes, if you went to a local one - ”

“I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else. To tell the truth, I passed the aptitude test while I was still in hospital in ‘45 - I figured my future was pretty desk based, so I had a vague idea. I was a very good chemist before I joined up, nor did they recruit me to the Strategic _Scientific_ Reserve for nothing,”

“Would they still accept you, even though you’ve already achieved a fairly senior position?”

“You know how I am when I get an idea… I’ve already been to the VA, and they said it would be okay.”

“Ah. Okay. Is it my husband the chemist, then?”

“Yeah…”

“We’ll re-recriut you, you’ll see,”

“I’m sure you will. C’mere,”


	27. abundance

It was only after Peggy had gone home to visit her family that she realised how abundant America was. It was only after she had gone home to shelves having only the illusion of being full that she realised what a difference several thousand miles of blue separation made. It was only after she had eaten Wooltons pie three days in a row, she began to appreciate at least the option of a taco.

Not even bread had been rationed during the war, and yet here was her mother cutting her remaining 300g of bread into the thinnest slices possible.

She thought about the almost offensive amount of avocados Howard had for his ‘pool parties’ and sighed. The world had quite a bit of healing to do.


	28. veggies

A handful of peas flew across the room.

Peggy sighed.

Had she been such a menace when she was young?

Oh good. Now he was throwing each piece of broccoli in random directions across the room. At least his motor skills were progressing.

Michael squealed at the appearance of his Pai, who takes one look at Peg’s fed up expression and the various legumes spread around the floor, and chuckles.

“Go, get outta here,” he starts, reaching down to pick the nearest stalk up. “You’ve done it every day this week, I'll finish him up; won’t I, buddy?”

Michael giggled.

Peggy got up and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. He flashed a grin in return, which turned to a mildly confused look as she took up her place across the table.

“If it’s alright with you, I’m happy right here.”


	29. flaws

Everyone projects an image.

Ideally it’s flawless. And it makes one uncomfortable when faced with a situation that may expose it.

In the beginning, that had been every situation for Daniel. His flaws were impossible to hide. It was as obvious as the two sticks that accompanied him everywhere, and then he would frustrate himself by not being able to do something, and would get short with those around him, and feel himself a burden, and retreat even further. With time and pie and kind words, it became a non-issue, but it would still tug at him every once in a while. He still wasn’t entirely sure it was a detractor. His granddaughter would call that internalised ableism.

Everyone projects an image. One just hopes it doesn’t look the same on the outside as on the inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I like this one, but I can't put my finger on why... any concrit would be gratefully received!


	30. waves

The gentle lapping of the sea up onto the stones mirrored the nervous beating of Daniel’s heart. 

They had stopped by their favourite ice cream place and watched the sunset for their usual tuesday night date, and Peggy, Daniel thought, while fingering the small box in his jacket pocket, had not seemed to notice anything different.

They had talked about marriage in the abstract, of course, and confirmed that, yes, I would actually like to marry you, and I’m glad you feel the same way, but that didn’t stop the nerves.

He put his hand in the box again, and started - “Hey Peg?”

“Mmhm?”

“I love you, and I can’t imagine my life in any other way than it is now… um… - ”

“I love you too, darling, but I feel like there’s a second half to that sentence,” she threw him a sideways smile, gentle and teasing.

“There is… um, Margaret Elisabeth Carter, will you marry me?”

To be honest, Daniel, I've sort of been expecting this all evening,” she joked slightly. 

“Is that a yes?” 

Yes.”

His face lit up, but there was still one question.

"How did you know?"

You've been fiddling with something in your pocket all evening, and you haven't been that jittery since you asked me out in New York. There are downsides to dating a secret agent, you know," she said matter of factly, unable to keep the smile off her face.

He captured her face between both his hands and kissed her firm on the lips, the answer holding as much promise and anticipation as he had hoped. 

The waves seemed to applaud the happy scene in front of them.


	31. habit

The gentle morning bounced off her now silver hair, her form bowed over what was almost definitely this year’s expense reports. He walked over to the coffee machine, starting the two cups, like he always did. He paid special attention to his gait length like his therapist had said, and lurched slightly as he placed her cup to her side.

“Mmm. Good morning darling. How’s the leg?” She reached up to peck his cheek and reached an arm around his waist. He tilted his cheek to receive it, out of habit.

“It’s good. Just need to find the new normal,”

“I’m glad.”


End file.
